4 - Friday. December 7, 1990 - North Shore News Eastern media’s annual coverage of West Van only half the story THE TROUBLE with the press is that you can’t trust it to keep a secret. Thus, once again, it is being bandied about the country that West Vancouver, an impoverished municipaiity whose residents don't know where their second BMW is going to come from, nevertheless is the richest place in Canada. Well, not quite. The Globe and Mail, which resents being called the Toronto Globe and Mail — there’s a paper that knows civic unpopularity when it sees it — reported this week that West Van- couver, whose residents are served by a much bolder newspaper which is too modest to be named in this column, can boast the highest average income of any municipality in this broad land ($42,192 for all returns filed in the municipality). Notice I say ‘‘can’’ boast. Not “twill”? boast. If it comes to a choice between boasting and not boasting, I believe I know what the discreet, modest, and well- bred citizens of West Vancouver will choose to do. Anyway, as the Globe hasicns to make clear, even the accolade of ‘thighest average income’* is subject to vioient challenge. As its lead paragraph puts it: **West Vancouver still (sic) leads the country’s cities in highest average income, but if smaller towns are included, Westmount, Que., comes out far ahead."’ Well, let it, say I. Anyway, that's my first impulse. The se- ro Trevor Lautens GARDEN OF BIASES cond is (o suggest that this is one of those apples-and-oranges com- parisons you keep hearing about, thouch in fact records show that it’s been the longest time since anyone actually bothered to com- pare apples and oranges. The point is that West Van- couver is in the big league of cities having 25,000 or more people who file income tax returns. West- mount is down in the minors, grouped with cities that have only 7,000 filers. It’s a little tike saying that Wayne Gretzky has a mere 49 points this season in the NHL, whereas Claud (Whirlwind) Wip- ple has triumphantly racked up 133 points in the North Truro In- dustria! League. Westmount, let’s be honest, hardly qualifies as a city. It’s a besieged enclave of old-money Anglo-Canadians completely sur- rounded by the city of Montreal, something like a Shaughnessy in- corporated against the barbarians of lower Vancouver. Keith Spicer once described its residents as ‘Westmount Rhinos”’ — will he dare take his poetic commission on national unity there, by the way, and ask for submissions of limericks starting with the line ‘*There once was a Rhino from Westmount..."?? But let us get back to West Vancouver, where it is warmer, if not drier. What intrigues me is that the only time West Van- couver gets Canada’s attention, unwelcome or not, is when the Toronto-based national media rediscover each year that it’s the richest municipality, with all the aforementioned qualifiers. This of course is a fact of life for Western Canadians in general. Gordon Shaw, B.C. organizer for the Reform Party and a West Vancouver resident, told me the other day that party leader Preston Manning recently spent six weeks in British Columbia, addressing no less than 47 meetings, and reaped the publicity of three stories. Then he went to Orillia, Ontario, where Stephen Leacock used to do his summer drinking, and gave a speech. It was covered by the two major na- tional television networks. This is no surprise to natives of Ontario like myself (none of whom, by the way, ever use the awkward term ‘‘Ontarian’’). Orillia is a couple of hour’s drive from Toronto, where the national media live, mostly on brie from the St. Lawrence Market, and therefore qualifies as a kind of honorary Toronto suburb. Like other Westerners, Manning could not possibly be important until he got the East’s attention. Having also been profiled at great length in the current Saturday Night, it's official: Manning's Important. Not of course as im- portant as a Quebecer of equivalent stature, but Important. But I have wandered far From West Vancouver, its wealth, and its own separatist movement. (Our burning question is: Will Tid- diycove stay or go?) [n the inter- ests of accuracy, it must be noted that West Van’s No. | position in the income tables reported by the Globe are for 1988. At this moment, what with Murray Pezim’s long-run troubles, it could be that the collapse of the Stockbroker Belt would bring West Vancouver down to the level of Brandon, Manitoba. Look, that chap in the ragged Chester Barrie suit playing ‘‘Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime’ on his har- monica in front of the liquor store — didn't he used to be a big noise on the Vancouver Stock Ex- change? Anyway, speaking as a West Vancouver resident of merely six years’ standing, | won't believe the place is wealthy as long as on- ly two of the half-dozen taps in the men’s showers at the rec cen- tre are in working order. I call ita municipal disgrace that merits na- tional attention. If you don’t know these people... you must be paying retail Christmas at the Sample Room means great gifts at wholesale prices. High end fashion wear at a fraction of retail prices! For those who know, it’s the best deal in town. Open 7 Days a week © Thurs. & Fri. rill 9:00 p.m. 1000 Mainland 685-8485 BC Rail dispute sent back to Supreme Court IT'S BUSINESS as usual at North Vancouver-based BC Rail now that a B.C. Court of Appeal deci- sion has told the Crown corpora- tion to take a labor dispute it has with two of its seven unions back to the B.C. Supreme Court, ac- cording to bC Rail spokesman Barrie Wall. Wall made his comments fol- lowing a recent B.C. Court o1 Appeal decision that instructed BC Rail and the United Transpor- tation Union (UTU), along with the Plumbers Pipefitters and Steamfitters Union Local 170, to return to the B.C. Supreme Court to settle a dispute over whether the two unions can opt out of a contract clause reached between the company and the Joint Coun- cil of Unions, which represents seven BC Rail unions. The collective agreement, which was ratified by the joint council and drafted by industrial inquiry commissioner Vince Ready, was challenged in B.C. Supreme Court by the UTU and the plumbers’ union. The court agreed with the unions’ claim that Ready had no jurisdiction cither to make binding recommendations for a collective agreement or to order a vote on the agreement. The court ruled that the two unions could opt out of the contract. But BC Rail appealed the deci- sion to the B.C. Court of Appeal, which has now seni the matter back to the B.C. Supreme Court. “The bail is now in their (unions’) court. The next move is entirely up to the unions. As far as we're concerned it’s business as usual,’’ said Wall. **‘We feel we have a collective agreement with all seven unions.’’